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Pierre Bastien is a French composer and multi-instrumentalist for dance companies, who built his own mechanical orchestra for musical accompaniment. This is his second release for Rephlex. Since 1987 he has focused on solo performances, sound installations, recordings and collaborations with such artists as video/film artist Pierrick Sorin and Karel Doing, Bauhausian string sculptor Jean Weinfeld, British singer and composer Robert Wyatt, fashion designer Issey Miyake, as well as performing in Pascal Comelade's Bel Canto Orquesta. Bastien played in some collective bands as well as with the Dominique Bagouet Dance Company, all the while literally building his own orchestra called Mecanium -- an ensemble of musical automatons constructed from meccano parts and activated by electro-motors, that perform with acoustic instruments from all over the world. As composer Michel F. Côté notes, "A composer's dream : a fail-safe orchestra at one's fingertips obeying ever so gently to his every command : a timeless sounding orchestra, both futuristic and slightly Dada, conjuring ancient traditions in its surprisingly sensuous music ...The musicians of his orchestra are machines. And the idea behind it is simple, efficient and poetic : to have traditional instruments (Chinese lute, Morrocan bendir, Javanese saron, koto, violin, sanza, etc.) played by a mechanical instrument made of meccano pieces and recycled turntable motors. These hybrid and self-playing sound sculptures perform a series of short pieces, charming and hypnotic." Bastien currently enjoys about 80 contributors to his orchestra, with shows and installations around the world.
Four years after his successful first album for Rephlex, Pierre Bastien is back with more automaton tunes and palindromic titles. His technique remains the same -- i.e., producing music played by mechanical contraptions, each automaton usually making one or two sounds, the composer's art residing in both designing the "players" and arranging their "contributions" into orchestrated pieces. It seems complicated on paper, but it actually sounds effortless, and that is only one of the wonders in Bastien's music. Tubes fitted with carefully placed spikes rotate above a keyboard to play chords and spiked wheels strike guitar strings, while other devices activate a turntable, blow into a trumpet, and hit various percussion instruments -- all this in time and in tune. The music has a childlike feel, with a certain Hans Reichel quality in the melodies. And if you think all the minutia invested in (literally) assembling this music makes it sound cold, think again: tracks like "Eye" and "Tut" sound surprisingly human, thanks to the shaky nature of these automatons. The latter tune even has a vocal part scratched out of a slab of vinyl. And "Eke" has a sweet trumpet melody (one of the few instruments Bastien is likely to play himself, although the booklet contains no information to that effect) and kalimba accompaniment reminiscent of Klimperei's naïve instrumentals. Suitably poppier than any of the engineer's previous efforts, Pop may not cover new ground, but it adds quality material to Bastien's oeuvre. ~ François Couture
Recording information: Studio G.E.K., Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
The Wire (p.55) - "The occasional keyboard tone cluster hints at hidden depths to the music, but for the most part POP remains a wonderfully uncontextualised oddity."
Pierre Bastien - Pop Songs
| 1 | Eye | | | |
| 2 | Noon | | | |
| 3 | Deed | | | |
| 4 | Tut | | | |
| 5 | Pep | | | |
| 6 | Gig | | | |
| 7 | Eke | | | |
Pop Review
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